STATE COLLEGE – There’s no denying how important this week’s remaining spring practices are. Penn State practiced Monday and Wednesday this week and will go again Friday and Saturday.

Penn State freshman Steven Bench makes his collegiate debut in the first half at Virginia.JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News 2012

Next week the Nittany Lions close out their final three practices of the spring and begin wrapping up the semester and will eventually break shortly thereafter to start working out individually for the summer.

Bill O’Brien hopes to get many things nailed down with the team before spring ball concludes, but right now the quarterback competition between Steven Bench and Tyler Ferguson remains a close race. Both quarterbacks have received equal reps this spring –168 attempts during 7-on-7s and 11-on-11s to be exact – and O’Brien aims to keep it even for the rest of spring ball.

“Really, I can’t say that one guy has really stood out above the other guy,” O’Brien said at Wednesday’s spring press conference. “They’ve both had their moments. I’ve been very impressed with how hard each of these guys has worked. They’re both young. They’re both 18 or 19 years old.”

Ferguson traveled nearly 3,000 miles from California to State College to be able to compete for the job this spring and has learned the offense on the fly. While Bench was here since last summer, O’Brien said both quarterbacks are tasked with playing alongside veteran teammates who were in the system longer.

“It does help a lot because now they know what the route is so they can explain it to the quarterback,” O’Brien said. “Maybe even after practice or on Sunday when they’re sitting around in the dorm, they know what it means. Instead of them waiting for coach O’Brien to tell then what it means on Monday, they know what it means now.”

The experienced pieces of the offense also allow O’Brien to open the playbook more, something the quarterbacks are picking up as they go too. Adding more to last year’s foundation of the offense was necessary because O’Brien said teams have last year’s games on film and this is a different group this season.

The tight ends have more experience, the wide receivers are more seasoned and O’Brien said it’s not counterintuitive to give the quarterbacks more to learn too.

“We’ve expanded. We’ve added more to our language,” he said. “I think the quarterbacks have adapted well. I think it’s all about how hard they work at learning it and how good of a job you do of teaching them.”

“We think he’s going to be really good for us so we don’t want to push that,” O’Brien said. “Other than that, knock on wood, I think these kids have done a good job of practicing on their feet and taking care of each other.”